Factors Influencing New Media Exposure of Political News by Youths in Isan Society
4. RESEARCH RESULTS
The results of the research herein are presented in three issues: 1) characteristics of the youths/sample group; 2) news exposure; and 3) analysis of the factors influencing political news exposure, which are detailed as follows:
4.1. Characteristics of the Sample Group
One thousand two-hundred students answered the questionnaire (100%), divided into 400 from each of the three university groups: governmental universities, private universities, and autonomous universities (33.30% each), presented in Table 3. Of the total population (1,200), 630 students (52.50%) were males and 570 (47.50%) were fe-males. There were 454 (37.90%) studying in the fields of science and technology, followed by the fields of humani-ties and social sciences (398 students, 33.10%), and the health science fields (348 students, 29.00%).
4.2. News Exposure
For Internet use behavior in tracking political news, it was found that most (48.50%) used a smartphone/iPhone
Table 2. Reliability and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
Motivation for political news exposure Scale mean if item
deleted Scale variance if
item deleted Corrected item-total
correlation Cronbach’s alpha if item deleted
1. Importance of political news 130.27 110.96 0.526 0.814
2. Benefits of political news 130.70 119.67 0.052 0.830
3. Inner drives for follow up political news 130.23 117.63 0.329 0.822
4. Group/social network 131.53 119.78 0.003 0.836
5. Characteristics of the Internet 130.27 118.96 0.187 0.824
Motivation for political news exposure Cronbach’s alpha coefficient=0.825
connected to the Internet to catch up with the news. The primary objective was for perception/cognizance of po-litical news, at 41.40%. The percentage of youths using the Internet every day was 46.90% and the percentage of youths using the Internet for 1-3 hours a day, for the same purpose, was 69.10%. The analysis of the political news they were exposed to showed that they were mostly open to protest news/political demands, followed by news about the government’s operations and the operations of the opposition parties (Mean=4.33, S.D.=0.85, Mean=4.03, S.D.=1.03 and Mean=3.79, S.D.=1.11 respectively). The analytical results of the channels for political news expo-sure showed that most of the youths were least exposed to political news through different channels. It was noted that the youths were open to political news at a medium level through social media such as newsfeed, clubhouse, and politics pages (Mean=3.06, S.D.=1.17, Mean=2.88, S.D.=1.42 and Mean=2.67, S.D.=0.86 respectively).
4.3. Analysis of the Factors Influencing Political News Exposure
The variable analysis was carried out using multiple re-gression analysis, in which the independent variables and dependent variables must be measured at interval scales or proportions only. Any variable measured at the group level would be changed to ‘dummy’ and the reference
group determined. Within the multiple regression analy-sis, no pair of variables taken for analysis should correlate more than 0.75, to avoid the problem of multi-collinearity that would lessen the value of prediction (Prasitrattasin, 1995). It was found in the research that all of the variables correlated each pair lower than 0.75; therefore, the mul-tiple regression analysis could be applied.
4.3.1. Factors Associating Internet Use Behavior to Follow-Up Political News
It was found that (1) personal characteristics, i.e., sex and time spent on the Internet to follow up on political news, correlated significantly at the statistical level of 0.01 (Table 4). The contingency coefficient level was rather low at 0.092. The field of study and the frequency of Internet use for following up on political news correlated signifi-cantly at a level of 0.05, with a relatively low contingency coefficient level at 0.101 (Table 5); and (2) the motivation for exposure to political news from the Internet and the frequency of Internet use and time spent to follow-up po-litical news correlated significantly at the statistical level of 0.01, with low levels of contingency coefficient at 0.244 and 0.274, respectively (Table 6).
4.3.2. Factors Influencing the Channels for Political News Exposure
The four factor groups of variables were analyzed by multiple regression analysis using the Enter method. The results showed that only some independent variables in-fluenced the channels for political news exposure. The fol-lowing are details.
1) The importance of political news showed a positive influence on the channels for political news expo-sure, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of 0.391. It can be explained that a one unit increase of importance of political news means a 0.391 unit of the channels for political news exposure increase.
Therefore, if youth are more motivated about the importance of political news, they will receive more channels for political news.
2) Inner drives for following up on political news had a positive influence on the channels for political news exposure, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of 0.279. This means that when a youth has one unit higher of inner drives for following up on political news, channels for political news exposure increase at 0.279 units. Therefore, if youths have more inner drive for following up political news, they will re-Table 3. Frequency and percentage of youth characteristics
Youth characteristics % (Frequency) 1. University groups
Autonomous universities 33.30 (400) Governmental universities 33.30 (400) Private universities 33.30 (400)
Total 100.0 (1,200)
2. Sex
Male 52.50 (630)
Female 47.50 (570)
Total 100.0 (1,200)
3. Fields of study
Sciences and Technologies 37.90 (454) Humanities and Social Sciences 33.10 (398)
Health Sciences 29.00 (348)
Total 100.0 (1,200)
ceive more channels for political news.
3) Influence of group/social networks showed a posi-tive influence on the channels for political news exposure, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of 0.062. It can be explained that a one unit increase of influence of group/social networks means a 0.062 unit of channels for political news exposure increase.
Therefore, if youths are influenced by social groups/
networks that have a greater effect on following political news, they will receive more channels for political news.
4) Specific characteristics of the Internet had a posi-tive influence on the channels for political news exposure, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) Table 4. Frequency,percentageandChi-squareofyouthsclassifiedbysexandbehaviorinusingtheInternettokeepupwithpoliticalnews
Internet use behavior for political news exposure
Sex Male
% (Frequency) Female
% (Frequency) 1. Tools used for tracking political news on the Internet
Personal computer (PC) 11.10 (70) 10.00 (57)
Notebook 20.70 (130) 19.90 (113)
iPad/Tablet 18.10 (114) 23.30 (133)
Smartphone/iPhone 50.10 (316) 46.80 (267)
Total 100.00 (630) 100.00 (570)
Chi-square=3.650, df=3, Sig.=0.233 2. Objectives for tracking political news
Perception/cognizance of political news 42.60 (269) 40.00 (229)
Diversity of news exposure 0.60 (155) 26.90 (153)
Social utility (social interaction) 22.60 (142) 23.90 (136)
Entertainment 10.20 (64) 9.20 (52)
Total 100.00 (630) 100.00 (570)
Chi-square=2.702, df=3, Sig.=0.412 3. Frequency of Internet use to follow-up on political news
1-3 days/week 15.60 (98) 19.80 (113)
4-6 days/week 36.20 (228) 34.70 (198)
Everyday 48.20 (304) 45.50 (259)
Total 100.00 (630) 100.00 (570)
Chi-square=3.781, df=2, Sig.=0.151 4. Time spent on the Internet to follow-up on political news
1-3 hours/day 72.80 (459) 64.90 (369)
4-10 hours/day 20.50 (129) 24.60 (140)
More than 10 hours 6.70 (42) 10.50 (60)
Total 100.00 (630) 100.00 (570)
Chi-square=10.332, df=2, Sig.=0.006, Contingency coefficient=0.092
of 0.084. It can be explained that a one unit increase of specific characteristics of the Internet means a 0.084 unit of channels for political news exposure increase. Therefore, if young people are more moti-vated about the characteristics of the Internet, they will receive more channels for political news.
It was found that the channels for political news expo-sure were mostly influenced by inner drives (Beta=0.270), followed by the importance in political news exposure (Beta=0.234), influence from groups/social networks (Beta=0.186), and specific characteristics of the Internet (Beta=0.139) at a significant level of 0.01. This could ex-Table 5. Frequency,percentageandChi-squareofyouthsclassifiedbyfieldofstudyandbehaviorinusingtheInternettotrackpolitical
news
Internet use behavior for political news exposure
Field of study Sciences and
Technologies
% (Frequency)
Health Sciences
% (Frequency)
Humanities and Social Sciences
% (Frequency) 1. Tools used for tracking political news on the Internet
Personal computer (PC) 13.60 (62) 9.20 (37) 8.30 (29)
Notebook 20.40 (93) 21.30 (85) 18.80 (65)
iPad/Tablet 19.80 (90) 22.00 (87) 20.10 (70)
Smartphone/iPhone 46.20 (210) 47.50 (189) 52.80 (184)
Total 100.00 (455) 100.00 (397) 100.00 (348)
Chi-square=10.854, df=3, Sig.=0.134 2. Objectives for tracking political news
Perception/cognizance of political news 41.60 (189) 40.20 (160) 42.20 (147)
Diversity of news exposure 24.60 (112) 26.50 (105) 26.20 (91)
Social utility (social interaction) 23.00 (105) 22.80 (91) 24.00 (84)
Entertainment 10.80 (49) 10.50 (42) 7.60 (26)
Total 100.00 (455) 100.00 (397) 100.00 (348)
Chi-square=9.961, df=3, Sig.=0.255 3. Frequency of Internet use to follow-up political news
1-3 days/week 16.00 (73) 20.70 (82) 16.10 (56)
4-6 days/week 36.70 (167) 38.30 (152) 30.70 (107)
Everyday 47.30 (215) 41.00 (163) 53.20 (185)
Total 100.00 (455) 100.00 (397) 100.00 (348)
Chi-square=12.260, df=4, Sig.=0.016, Contingency coefficient=0.101 4. Time spent on the Internet to follow-up political news
1-3 hours/day 65.10 (296) 74.30 (295) 68.30 (237)
4-10 hours/day 25.70 (117) 19.90 (79) 21.00 (73)
More than 10 hours 9.20 (42) 5.80 (23) 10.70 (37)
Total 100.00 (455) 100.00 (397) 100.00 (348)
Chi-square=11.902, df=4, Sig.=0.099
plain the variation of the channels for political news expo-sure at 46.5% (R2=0.465), as shown in Table 7.
4.3.3. Factors Influencing Political News Selection The five factor groups of variables were analyzed by multiple regression analysis using the Enter method. The results showed that only some independent variables
influenced political news selection. The following are de-tails.
1) The field of humanities and social sciences showed a positive influence on political news selection, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of 3.395. It can be explained that youth in the field of humanities and Table 6. Frequency,percentageandChi-squareofyouthsclassifiedbymotivationforexposuretopoliticalnewsfromtheInternetand
behavior of Internet use behaviors for political news exposure
Internet use behaviors for political news exposure
Motivation for exposure to political news from the Internet Very low
% (Frequency) Low
% (Frequency) Moderate
% (Frequency) More
% (Frequency) Most
% (Frequency) 1. Tools used for tracking political news on the Internet
Personal computer (PC) 20.00 (1) 2.00 (2) 0.50 (2) 1.30 (7) 1.10 (2)
Notebook 20.00 (1) 10.20 (10) 17.00 (67) 19.30 (101) 10.60 (19)
iPad/Tablet 20.00 (1) 6.10 (6) 11.20 (44) 21.00 (110) 23.90 (43)
Smartphone/iPhone 40.00 (2) 81.60 (80) 71.20 (280) 58.40 (306) 64.40 (116)
Total 100.00 (5) 100.00 (98) 100.00 (393) 100.00 (524) 100.00 (180)
Chi-square=39.623, df=10, Sig.=0.061 2. Objectives for tracking political news
Perception/cognizance of political news 20.00 (1) 66.30 (65) 63.90 (251) 47.10 (247) 51.10 (92) Diversity of news exposure 40.00 (2) 20.40 (20) 20.40 (80) 28.80 (151) 20.60 (37) Social utility (social interaction) 20.00 (1) 11.20 (11) 15.30 (60) 23.70 (124) 26.10 (47)
Entertainment 20.00 (1) 2.00 (2) 0.50 (2) 0.40 (2) 2.20 (4)
Total 100.00 (5) 100.00 (98) 100.00 (393) 100.00 (524) 100.00 (180)
Chi-square=40.114, df=10, Sig.=0.074 3. Frequency of Internet use to follow up political news
1-3 days/week 40.00 (2) 43.90 (43) 13.50 (53) 17.40 (91) 12.20 (22)
4-6 days/week 40.00 (2) 26.50 (26) 39.40 (155) 38.00 (199) 24.40 (44)
Everyday 20.00 (1) 29.60 (29) 47.10 (185) 44.70 (234) 63.30 (114)
Total 100.00 (5) 100.00 (98) 100.00 (393) 100.00 (524) 100.00 (180)
Chi-square=75.697, df=8, Sig.=0.000, Contingency coefficient=0.244 4. Time spent on the Internet to follow up political news
1-3 hours/day 80.00 (4) 91.80 (90) 79.10 (311) 65.10 (341) 45.80 (82)
4-10 hours/day 20.00 (1) 5.10 (5) 16.50 (65) 25.60 (134) 35.80 (64)
More than 10 hours 0.00 (0) 3.10 (3) 4.30 (17) 9.40 (49) 18.40 (33)
Total 100.00 (5) 100.00 (98) 100.00 (393) 100.00 (524) 100.00 (180)
Chi-square=97.219, df=8, Sig.=0.000, Contingency coefficient=0.274
social sciences are exposed more to political news selection than youth in the fields of science and technology and health science (referenced group) by 3.395 times.
2) Benefits of political news had a positive influence on political news selection, with a multiple regres-sion coefficient (b) of 3.818. This means that when a youth has one unit higher of benefits of political news, political news selection increases at 3.818 units. Therefore, if youths are more motivated about benefits of political news, they would be more open to political news selection.
3) Inner drives for the follow-up of political news showed a negative influence on political news selec-tion, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of -2.565. It can be explained that when a youth has an increase of 1 unit of inner drives for the follow-up of political news, he/she would experience a 2.565 unit decrease in political news selection. Therefore, if youths have more inner drives for the follow-up of political news, they would be open to less political news selection.
4) Influence of group/social networks showed a posi-tive influence on political news selection, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of 2.746. It can be explained that a one unit increase of influence of
group/social networks means a 2.746 unit of politi-cal news selection increase. Therefore, if youths are influenced by social groups/networks that have a greater effect on following political news, they would be more open to political news selection.
5) Specific characteristics of the Internet had a nega-tive influence on political news selection, with a multiple regression coefficient (b) of -0.548. It can be explained that when a youth has one unit higher of specific characteristics of the Internet, political news selection decreases at 0.548 units. Therefore, if young people are more motivated about the charac-teristics of the Internet, they would be less open to political news selection.
It was found that political news selection was influ-enced mostly from groups/social networks (Beta=0.652), followed by inner drives (Beta=0.196), benefits from political news exposure (Beta=0.184), specific character-istics of the Internet (Beta=0.072), and the field of study (Beta=0.053) at the significant statistical level of 0.01. The variation of the political news selection could be explained at 44.6% (R2=0.446), as shown in Table 8.
Table 7. Factors influencing exposure to political news: channels for political news exposure
Independent variables b Standard
error Beta t Sig. Variance
influence factor
Order of influence Characteristics of the youths
1. Malea) -0.147 0.175 -0.018 -0.814 0.401 1.047
2. Field of humanities and social sciencesb) 0.030 0.108 0.006 0.282 0.778 1.061 Motivation behind political news exposure
3. Importance of political news 0.391 0.056 0.234 6.981 0.000 2.500 2
4. Benefits from political news -0.028 0.050 -0.017 -0.565 0.572 2.083
5. Inner drive for political news 0.279 0.037 0.270 7.582 0.000 2.826 1
6. Influences of groups/social networks 0.062 0.009 0.186 6.622 0.000 1.757 3 7. Specific characteristics of the Internet 0.084 0.017 0.139 5.072 0.000 1.665 4
a 4.438
R2=0.465, Adjusted R2=0.462, F=148.222, Sig. of F=0.000, N=1,200
a)Reference group: Female.
b)Reference group: Health science and technology.
5. DISCUSSION
The research results showed that most of the youths were least exposed to political news through other chan-nels, but were open to political news at a medium level through social media. This is because it is a communica-tion channel that promotes interaccommunica-tion between senders and the receivers, resulting in two-way communication.
Social media has thus become an important channel for disseminating news today. One notable result of this research was that youths were moderately exposed to information via social media, which had the highest aver-age compared to other channels. However, the news was received about protests/political demands at the highest level, reflecting that the youths did not intentionally seek political information through such channels, but were exposed to this news as a byproduct of other online ac-tivities. The diversity of news and information presented through social media’s newsfeed may increase the chances of incidental exposure to political information for the audience, causing the phenomenon of ‘news flows into the audience’ or ‘news finds me,’ thus making the audi-ence aware of various political movements and events happening in society and more alert in politics (Fletcher
& Neilsen, 2018; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2017; Muakchim, 2021; Sveningsson, 2015). It is for this reason that youths
in higher education, especially in the Isan region, are in-creasingly active in political drives to demonstrate their political stance through various political movements such as Free Youth, Doadin Mob, and Isan Bor Yan Der (the dialect meaning “Isan youths are not afraid”). All are sym-bolic political expressions of Isan youths proclaiming a stand against the coup in Thailand.
This study found that sex and the time spent on the Internet to follow up on political news were directly cor-related, due to their different interests in media exposure as well as time spent on media, particularly the Internet.
Regarding the use of social media, females were found to use social media for educational activities at levels higher than males, resulting in female youths being more ex-posed to a greater amount of political news. However, in terms of political news, social practices as well as beliefs and values were obstacles to promoting woman political participation. Also, in a society where men are dominant, women have fewer educational opportunities than men, thus affecting political news exposure and political par-ticipation (Jandaeng, 2016; Mlambo & Kapingura, 2019).
Today, where Thai society values men and women equally in both education and politics, women still play a less po-litical role than men.
It was also found that the program field and the fre-quency of Internet use for following up on political news Table 8. Factors influencing exposure to political news: political news selection
Independent variables b Standard
error Beta t Sig. Variance
influence factor
Order of influence Characteristics of the youths
1. Malea) 3.004 2.339 0.029 1.285 0.199 1.038
2. Field of humanities and social sciencesb) 3.395 1.453 0.053 -2.336 0.020 1.046 5 Motivation behind political news exposure
3. Importance of political news 1.291 0.749 0.061 1.724 0.085 2.524
4. Benefits from political news 3.818 0.670 0.184 5.700 0.000 2.092 3
5. Inner drive for political news -2.565 0.494 -0.196 -5.198 0.000 2.849 2
6. Influences of groups/social networks 2.746 0.124 0.652 22.118 0.000 1.743 1 7. Specific characteristics of the Internet -0.548 0.221 -0.072 -2.485 0.013 1.664 4
a 51.000
R2=0.446, Adjusted R2=0.442, F=127.970, Sig. of F=0.000, N=1,200
a)Reference group: Female.
b)Reference group: Health science and technology.
also correlated, as the field of learning affects the interests and expertise of the audience. Undergraduate students studying in the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, and the Faculty of Business Administration use social media in their daily lives more than those in the Faculty of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Agro-Industry, and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. This is due to the increased level of studying required in scien-tific fields, providing less free time to surf the Internet. In terms of following up on political news, it was found that Humanities and Social Sciences students are connected to politics and governance. Hence, they were open to news to enhance learning and knowledge of political news more than any other field of study, exhibiting a greater frequency of exposure to political news (Jandaeng, 2016;
Sarawanawong et al., 2017; Werakul, 2013). The study demonstrated that the motivation behind the exposure to political news from the Internet, the frequency in the use of the Internet, and time spent on the Internet to follow up on political news, was directly correlated due to the importance of news exposure, benefits from news expo-sure, inner drives, the influence of group/social networks, and specific characteristics of the Internet. The previous research dictates that each receiver is different in psychol-ogy, causing the individual to receive and interpret news in his or her unique way. The influence of group/social networks, including both close relationships and loose relationships, was determined to have different influences on a person’s decisions. The primary group, which was closely related to the receivers, had a greater influence on news exposure behavior than that of the secondary group (Jintarak, 2016; Parmelee & Perkins, 2012). In addition, thanks to the advancement of Web 2.0 technology, inter-active characteristics of the Internet are an important mo-tivation for news exposure, as the communicative role has been expanded from passive receivers to active receivers (Choi, 2016). Such motivation resulted in youths spend-ing more time keepspend-ing up with political news in terms of frequency and duration.
The results also demonstrated that inner drives had the greatest influence on the channels for political news expo-sure, because each news receiver differed psychologically, such as in attitudes and interests. Thus, the receiver select-ed different news channels and interpretselect-ed news different-ly. Inner or psychological drives can be divided into two categories: 1) interest in political news, and 2) the need for political news. As far as the need for political news was concerned, it was found that an open vision for political cognizance was the major objective of news exposure, for
people wanted to be informed of news and information to expand their experiences and world vision. Interest, there-fore, describes an individual’s inner drive to learn about politics and is the factor that influences exposure to po-litical news through traditional media and new media, as they correlated positively with politics, including political knowledge, political efficacy, and political participation (Brundidge, 2010; Jun, 2012; Prior, 2007). This is similar to news exposure to social media where news receivers who are interested in politics have different behavior than those who are not interested in politics. The former would be more likely to stumble upon or engage with news on social media, snacking on message clues such as headlines or illustrations. This process shows selective perception and attention and is influential in the forming of thoughts, attitudes, and knowledge of an individual related to cur-rent events in society (Sülflow et al., 2019).
Nevertheless, today’s younger individuals find them-selves embedded in an ambient news environment. Inter-est is the major factor that drives an individual to search for news from media channels. News receivers, who per-ceive online media as their primary news source, will pay close attention to news perceived through those channels.
However, people in general perceive these platforms as social spaces in which they frequently encounter news as a by-product of social interaction, resulting in incidental exposure generally caused by members of social networks.
News is shared with the audience in the network through social media newsfeeds. An algorithm depicting news media selection has been created from the usage history and reactions of receivers (Hopmann et al., 2016; Weeks &
Lane, 2020). This led to the perception that low-interested or motivated individuals may become well-informed without purposely following the news—the News Finds Me Perception (NFMP). At the same time, individuals rely more on less trustworthy sources of information on social media. Strong reliance on one’s communication network, however, may lead to the ‘bubble filter’ (Pariser, 2011) and
‘information cocoon’ (Sunstein, 2018), where a person becomes enclosed in the circulation of news that reflects similar political perspectives. Thus, these individuals may easily become a victim of ‘fake news’ and algorithms con-trolled by influential technological conglomerates (Bocz-kowski et al., 2018; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2017, 2018).
The research found that groups/social networks were the factors with the greatest influences on political news selection. It could be explained that interactions that con-nect in networks influence persuading someone’s thoughts and behavior related to politics more than one-way
com-munication, as it is an important property of online social networks in real-time, as they may enhance communica-tions of politics and motivate youths’ political news expo-sure. The greatest external influence upon individuals at the undergraduate education level are friends and social networks, as the former become more distant from their parents, the primary group that had taken the major role in forming their thoughts, attitudes, and behavior related to politics (Chansilp, 2019). News sharing among friends and social networks is therefore important for their following-up on news via their respective newsfeeds. This finding agreed with Parmelee and Perkins (2012), who studied the influences of groups/social networks on the political news exposure of an individual. Moreover, the characteristics of social contacts and the content shared by social networks influence the political news that individu-als are exposed to and what they believe. Opinion leaders in the communication networks act as gatekeepers, per-suading receivers and controlling the news that the receiv-ers are exposed to, especially for individuals who are less interested in politics (Bergström & Belfrage, 2018). Online social networks, therefore, have significant political in-fluence on news receivers. Additionally, the inin-fluence of groups or social networks covers the people who feel they belong to the same group owing to similar political view-points and the people who track similar media/channels for political news. This reflects the influence of ‘communi-zation’ in political viewpoints and media exposure. Social utility determines selective exposure of social media. As a result, news sources are more important than the news issue one is exposed to, for the social network has influ-ence in persuasion or drawing someone to view the news through different channels, especially new media (Ohme
& Mothes, 2020). The results of this study thus support the concept that says political discussions through online media are the communication among people holding sim-ilar political beliefs (Periser, 2011; Sunstein, 2018). People with the same political viewpoint, therefore, influence a receiver’s political news exposure.